Justices will decide whether local governments can ban pot dispensaries.

Patients who go to Canna Care, a dispensary operating in the city of Sacramento since 2005, to get their state-approved marijuana would not be able to do so in the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County.

“At one point, we had 100 dispensaries operating illegally in Sacramento County,” Sacramento County Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan said. “It was causing a lot of problems for neighboring businesses and residents.”

At least 180 local jurisdictions have implemented similar bans.

California Supreme Court Justices will mull over the legality of those bans in a two-year-old case involving Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center suing to block Riverside’s dispensary ban.

“You’re not going to be feeling well," Davies said. "You shouldn’t be told, ‘Yes,we’re going to allow you safe access in another city. You’re going to have to drive a hundred miles.’ That shouldn’t be happening.”

Medical marijuana advocates believe that local bans undermine state law, while forcing seriously ill people to turn to the black market for medicinal weed.

Davies said the idea that dispensaries invite crime is not true.

“If a dispensary is ran correctly and the city and the county has placed rules and regulations correctly, those things don’t happen,” she said.

However, local government leaders who are banning dispensaries believe they know what’s best for their people.

“I really believe in local control and local land use authority,” MacGlashan said. “Local governments are the ones who decide what uses should be allowed and where they should be allowed.”